German Patent Publication (DE-PS) 3,232,093, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,345 (Puritz et al.), issued on Nov. 22, 1981, discloses an automatic riveting robot including the following components: a drilling feed advance unit, a rivet supply unit, and a riveting unit. Each of these units is mounted in a controllable manner to a support console that extends in a radial direction relative to a riveting position or rather radially relative to an axis extending centrally through a riveting hole. Each of these units is movable in the required directions. Pneumatic couplings, electrical connectors, as well as clamping mechanisms for securing the riveting machine to a manufacturing robot are mounted on the support console. Such a conventional machine is capable of producing rivet connections, for example on an aircraft structural component in accordance with a respective riveting program, whereby the drilling of the riveting holes, the insertion of the rivets into the holes, and the setting of the rivets takes place in an automatic manufacturing sequence.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,345 leaves room for improvement with regard to the ability of the robot to position the drilling tool into locations that are difficult to access. More specifically, the arrangement of the other components of the robot, such as the rivet inserting and rivet setting units, makes it difficult to drill the rivet hole in positions that are hard to be reached by the drilling tool.